Goofs On Resumés
Work for the Pleasure of It
Quotes
Work Harder
Too Few Parking Spaces
More Money For Flynn
Topic : Employee, Employer
Ambiguous Victories
1. Business is made up of ambiguous victories and nebulous defeats. Claim them all as victories.
2. Keep track of what you do; someone is sure to ask.
3. Be comfortable around senior managers, or learn to fake it.
4. Never bring your boss a problem without some solution. You are getting paid to think, not to whine.
5. Long hours don’t mean anything; results count, not effort.
6. Write down ideas; they get lost, like good pens.
7. Always arrive at work 30 minutes before your boss.
8. Be sure to sit at the conference table—never by the wall.
9. Help other people network for jobs. What goes around comes around.
10. Don’t take sick days—unless you are.
11. Assume no one can/will keep a secret.
12. Know when you do your best—morning, night, under pressure, relaxed; schedule and prioritize your work accordingly.
13. Treat everyone in the organization with respect and dignity, whether it be the janitor or the president. Don’t ever be patronizing.
14. When you get the entrepreneurial urge, visit someone who has his own business. It may cure you.
15. Never appear stressed in front of a client, a customer or your boss. Take a deep breath and ask yourself: in the course of human events, how important is this'
16. Recognizing someone else’s contribution will repay you doubly.
17. Career planning is an oxymoron. The most exciting opportunities tend to be unplanned.
18. Always choose to do what you’ll remember ten years from now.
19. The size of your office is not as important as the size of your paycheck.
20. Understand what finished work looks like and deliver your work only when it is finished.
21. The person who spends all of his or her time at work is not hard-working; he or she is boring.
22. Know how to write business letters—including thank-you notes as well as proposals.
23. Never confuse a memo with reality. Most memos from the top are political fantasy.
24. Eliminate guilt. Don’t cheat on expense reports, taxes, benefits or your colleagues.
25. Reorganizations mean that someone will lose his or her job. Get on the task force that will make the recommendations.
26. Job security does not exist.
27. Children are a source of truth and ideas. The best icebreaker to use in intense meetings is one I heard from a six-year-old: “Raise your hand who’s mad.”
28. Always have an answer to the question “What would I do if I lost my job tomorrow?”
29. Go to the company holiday party.
30. Don’t get drunk at the company holiday party.
31. Avoid working on the weekends. Work longer during the week if you have to.
32. The most successful people in business are interesting.
33. Sometimes you’ll be on a roll and everything will click; take maximum advantage. When the opposite is true, hold steady and wait it out.
34. Never in your life say, “It’s not my job.”
35. Be loyal to your career, your interests and yourself.
36. Understand the skills and abilities that set you apart. Whenever you have an opportunity, use them.
37. People remember the end of the project. As they say in boxing, “Always finish stronger than you start.
Goofs On Resumés
Before you send out your next resumé, weed out the goofs, cautions recruiting executive Robert Half, who has been collecting examples of 'resumania? for years. Some of his favorites:
1. "Please call after 5:30 p.m. because I am self-employed and my employer does not know I am looking for another job.?
2. "I am very conscientions and accurite.?
3. "I am also a notary republic.?
4. 'the firm currently employs 20 odd people.?
5. "My consideration will be given to relocation anywhere in the English-speaking world and/or Washington, D.C.?
6. Under physical disablilties: "Minor allergies to house cats and Mongolian sheep.?
7. And reasons given for leaving the last job: 'the company made me a scapegoat-just like my previous three employers did.?
Work for the Pleasure of It
When the company founded by Andrew Carnegie was taken over by the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1901 it acquired as one of its obligations a contract to pay the top Carnegie executive, Charles M. Schwab, the then unheard of minimum sum of $1,000,000. J.P. Morgan of U.S. Steel was in a quandary about it. The highest salary on record was then $100,000. He met with Schwab, showed him the contract and hesitatingly asked what could be done about it. 'this,? said Schwab, as he took the contract and tore it up. That contract had paid Schwab $1,300,000 the year before. "I didn't care what salary they paid me,? Schwab later told a Forbes magazine interviewer.
"I was not animated by money motives. I believed in what I was trying to do and I wanted to see it brought about. I cancelled that contract without a moment's hesitation. Why do I work? I work for just the pleasure I find in work, the satisfaction there is in developing things, in creating. Also, the associations business begets. The person who does not work for the love of work, but only for money, is not likely to make money nor to find much fun in life.?
Quotes
"I have never found,? said Harvey C. Firestone, founder of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, 'that pay and pay alone would neither bring together or hold good people. I think it was the game itself.'
Work Harder
How do you motivate people to produce, to do a better job? The answer, say motivational experts, is by fulfilling these five needs:
- Economic security. Workers should feel that their time and effort will be fairly rewarded.
- Emotional Security. Management must create a climate in which employees 'trust? their superiors, and feel that their jobs contribute to a worthwhile goal.
- Recognition. Employees should feel that good work will be appreciated and praised.
- Self-expression. We live in a democracy, and none of us should feel that we surrender that heritage when we enter our place of employment. Employees should have the right to ommunicate ideas, suggestions, fears, and opinions to their superiors without fear of retribution.
- Self-respect. This is simply the need to be treated as an individual, as a human being-not a statistic.
Too Few Parking Spaces
To get employees to work on time, a Michigan company provides 45 parking spaces for 50 cars.
More Money For Flynn
A good many years ago a steel executive, strolling through one of the company's plants, stopped to talk to a long-time employee who was shoveling ore. "How much do you get a week, Flynn"? the executive asked. The man told him. "You ought to be getting more than that. We should pay you a certain amount extra after you have shoveled a stated amount each day.?
"There'd be no use in doing that,? the man answered, "I work as hard as I can now. And no matter how hard I work, I can't shovel more than a ton of ore each day.?
The steel executive returned to his office and, in spite of what the man had said, gave instructions to the payroll department to pay him more if he shoveled more. A few weeks later the executive again stopped to chat with the worker who now seemed somewhat embarrassed.
"What's the matter, Flynn"? he asked. "Well,? said the fellow, "I'll tell you. The other day when you were here I told you I couldn't shovel more than a ton of ore a day. I thought I was telling you the truth at the time. But since you have made that new arrangement, I am handling four tons a day, and it does not seem as hard as the one ton I formerly did. Each time a shovelful shoots through the air, I say to myself, 'there's more money for Flynn!"?
